Worries and Wonders
'Worries and Wonders '''is the 15th episode of ''Rails of Highland Valley and the 2017 Christmas Special. Plot Christmas is on its way yet again, which means more work and even more snow. One day, Mike is waiting to proceed to Tidewater, but Joe is the only thing that is keeping him. Mike looks all around for Joe, but can't see him. Joe finally arrives with his freight train from Roanoke and explains to Mike that there was black ice on the tracks and weather's been getting colder as he went further north, but Mike does not take these as excuses. As he departs, a memory comes back to him from his SP days, where he had to work in the cold weather. The next morning, Mike wakes up and decides to bug the locomotives. After several failed attempts to wake Nicholas up, Mike is finally able to wake Nicholas by squirting water on him. This angers Nicholas and begins an argument before Mr. Edwards assigns the engines. At Industrial Wasteland, Dave, Tiffany, and Tannen are impatiently waiting for their orders. When Mr. Dunn finally arrives, he assigns them to take a manifest to Willard, OH. The three engines are happy to be doing something other than sitting and freezing. As they are getting ready to depart, Jun and Kyle arrive with an autorack train and advise them to be careful when going between New Castle and Youngstown, as there may have been black ice. They also tease Dave about his accident with coal hoppers, much to his annoyance. Later on, Nicholas has to take a manifest to Morrisville, PA with Zane. Nicholas, however, is finding it hard to focus. Lily is having a good time, meanwhile, as she is taking a train west. Even later, Nicholas sees Sid arriving in the yard with a freight train. Sid is upset about the holidays, as there are a lot of toys and he doesn't get to blow any up. Some time later, Sid sees a boxcar full of toys, which is supposed to go on a freight train departing at 8:00, so he steals it and tries to escape. An NS GP38-2 and Nicholas pursue him and are able to surround him. Sid admits to being caught, but when Nicholas teases him, Sid gets angry and bumps him out of anger. The GP38-2 threatens to report Sid, as Nicholas decides to find Zane and go home. Back at home, Nicholas and Zane meet up with Will, who tells them about when he pulled an intermodal train to Chicago. On his journey, he passed by Larry, who had been taking coal trains up and down the Huntington Division. As Will went by, he blew snow all over Larry, which caused Lilim to laugh at him. Nicholas has a good laugh about it as well. The next morning, Nicholas wakes up, only to find out how cold it is. Mike starts to annoy him all over again. Meanwhile with Lily, she's feeling anxious herself. She and Miranda agree that they would rather be back on the east side of the nation. As they pull into the next station, they find Elvin and some other engines with a snowplow. Elvin explains it to them. When Lily gets to her destination, she finds that Nicholas spammed her with text messages. At Highland Valley, Timothy decides to get Nicholas' find off the subject by having him play a game. All he has to do is find some Christmas decorations in the mountains. Nicholas spends a while searching for them before he finds two boxcars full of them. At ground level, he finds out that they are going to decorate the station with them. When Shawn and Will return from work, they are impressed at what the shed now looks like. Nicholas starts to think about Lily again before Top Hat tells him a bad cutaway gag, which makes him run away. Unfortunately for him, Lily comes back later and asks where he is. Nicholas is now working a manifest with a C40-9. When they reach Maykai Yard, they find engines having a Christmas party where they also curse out James A. Squires. Nicholas has fun and forgets about Lily. A few hours later when the party is done, Nicholas and another SD40-2 prepare to take a manifest east. Nicholas gets home at 5:00, where he notices that Lily has a gift for him, which is not to be opened until Christmas. He soon sees Yulogo arriving with 'The Polar Express'. Meanwhile at Industrial Wasteland, the CSX engines got the dates mixed up and think Santa will arrive that night. The next morning, Arthur comes back and warns everyone that a snowstorm will be coming soon. Mr. Edwards arrives shortly after to hand out the work orders. When Lily is assigned to UP rails again, Nicholas begins to worry that she won't be back in time for Christmas. He feels too bad to do his initial assignment, so he instead helps Bridget with her work. As the two pull their freight train, Bridget tries to reassure Nicholas that things will be fine. As two days go by, however, the snow gets even worse. The other trains try to keep up, but it's difficult. At Sandusky, all sidings are full. Passenger services are delayed, which annoys many engines. Things are about to get worse for Nicholas while he's at Springfield Industrial. Mr. Machich assigns Nicholas to take a freight train to Shreveport, LA. The other engines are busy, so only Nicholas can do it. Nicholas heads south, battling the snow. He does well until he suddenly gets caught in a pile of snow. He is unable to reverse away, radio for help, or blast his horn. All he can do is sit and wait for help. Before long, Lily arrives on her return trip. When she finds Nicholas, she hurries off to get help when she's done with work. She arrives in the yard where Cure Bright, Misty, Elvin, Hank, Big Mac, and Lenny are at. When she tells them what happened, they agree to help out. Elvin also decides to get Mario and Luigi. When the rescue party makes it to the scene, Lily orders Elvin to remove the snow. He uses the snowplow before they realize that he's only making it worse for Nicholas. Lily puts the next step into play, where she, Misty, Cure Bright, Mario, and Luigi couple to Nicholas from the front end while Big Mac, Hank, Lenny, and Elvin couple to the back of his train. When they all are hooked up, Lily orders them to push. Then there is trouble. They find out that everyone is pushing, so Lily tells the back engines to pull backwards. They are able to move Nicholas, but not by much. Lily's next idea is for the front engines to pull backwards and the back engines to push. It begins to work before the couplers between Misty and Cure Bright snap. With less engines to pull, Lily tells everyone to use their superpowers. They attack the snow before they are able to free Nicholas. Nicholas is relieved to be free, as he thanks the engines who helped him. Because Nicholas is too stiff to continue, the next southbound train doubles up with his train. Lily couples to Nicholas and hurries home with him. It is Christmas Eve when they make it home, where Nicholas explains what had happened to everyone. They are all proud of Lily's heroic actions. The next day is Christmas Day. Nicholas opens his present from Lily, which turns out to be a mistletoe, much to the amusement of the others. Mike now wants his present, so Benjamin shows him a UP boxcar. Mike gets angry before Ely tells him that there could be SP trainsets or Ohio State Buckeyes souvenirs in it. Mike is excited until he opens it and discovers model trainsets and DVDs of railroads he hates, such as UP, ATSF, N&W, and CN. Mike is furious, but Benjamin gives him another present. Mike has to put on headphones and ends up getting ear raped by the Great Big Rolling Railroad song! Everyone laughs, as Will tells Nicholas that Mike got covered in coal a few days ago when Nicholas was gone. Nicholas thinks this year worked out alright for him. The following days also go alright for everyone else. Lily was praised for her actions, and Nicholas can now find it easier to not think about Lily a lot. He knows that there will always be chances. Characters * Nicholas * Lily * Will * Josiah * Shawn * Lilim * Jordan * Nadine (cameo) * Colton (cameo) * Teduka (cameo) * Benson (cameo) * Mike * Joe * Chuck (does not speak) * SP GP40-2 #7942 (not named) * Mr. Edwards * Arthur * Dave * Tiffany * Tannen * Mr. Dunn * Jun * Kyle * Zane * Miranda * Mark * Sid * NS GP38-2 #5305 (not named) * Larry * Michael * Elvin * Timothy * Top Hat * NS C40-9 #8830 (not named) * NS SD70ACe #1020 (not named) * NS SD40-2 #1644 (not named) * Yulogo * Dakota * Adam * J.P. * Evelyn * Raymond * Benjamin * Bridget * Boots (cameo) * Ely * Sam (cameo) * Neville * Mr. Machich * Cure Bright * Misty * Big Mac * Hank * Lenny * Mario * Luigi * Amber * Zach * Brandon * Kai * Matthew * Marie * Kevin * Steve (picture cameo) * Kerry (mentioned) * Ray (cameo) Locations * Highland Valley * Industrial Wasteland * City and Country * NS Pittsburgh Line * Generic location in West Virginia * NS Lake Division District * Maykai * NS Chicago Line * Springfield Industrial * Generic Midwest location Trivia * This marks the first time of a few things: ** First time an ear rape song was heard in Rails of Highland Valley. ** First appearance of Lenny. ** Elvin's first speaking role. ** Raillashup Productions joins the cast. ** First time Boots is shown in the Boxcar Logo scheme. * This episode has a bit in common with the Thomas The Tank Engine episodes "Terence The Tractor", "Thomas' Christmas Party", and "Thomas and the Christmas Tree", though none were the inspiration. * It is revealed that Nicholas crashed into a snowdrift in 1981. * The freight train Nicholas and Zane are pulling could possibly be 14G. * The yard Nicholas meets Sid at is most likely not Morrisville. * When Nicholas discovers how cold it is outside, it could be a reference to Cajon Railz ''Episode 3. * The C40-9 Nicholas is working with is the same one seen in Poltergeist. * The scene of Yulogo pulling the "Polar Express" is a reference to a "Rudolph the Red Nosed Genesis" joke made up by Railfanning Jonah. * A reference to ''The Full Bucketniers Episode 5 and the Tales on Harrison Rails Christmas Special is used. * Stock footage from Difficult Planning is used. * When Lily says "You'll have to move outside of your comfort zone", it is likely a Wreck-It Ralph reference. * It is revealed that UP had a role in getting the SPSF merger cancelled. * The scene of Mike getting covered in coal is a reference to a deleted scene of Tales on Springfield Railroad ''Episode 18, as well as the ''Thomas and Friends ''episode "Double Trouble". * The scene where Mike listens to the Great Big Rolling Railroad song at full blast has spawned use in memes. Goofs * The ex-SP AC4400CW trailing behind Elvin has low ditchlights and nose numberboards instead of high ditchlights and cab numberboards. * Hank has blank numberboards and is missing ditchlights. * When Mr. Edwards gives the assignment of taking C46, he doesn't mention any names. * Some intermodal cars are missing their numbers. * Before Nicholas crashes into the snow pile, the tracks appear to end before the snowdrift. * The snow sometimes speeds up or slows down with the locomotives' speed. * When Benjamin gives Mike his boxcar, there appear to be two Benjamins. * ''Linus And Lucy is credited as "Christmas Dance". Episode Category:Season 3 Category:Episodes Category:Nicholas-themed episodes Category:Episodes that feature a crash Category:Specials Category:Holiday Specials Category:Episodes not split into parts